DSS 719 - Strategic Culture

Credit Hours: 3

Provides an introduction to using strategic culture as an analytical approach to understanding the cultural, religious, historical, and leadership sources of state and non-state actor behavior, with special reference to issues related to weapons of mass destruction. The concept of strategic culture captures domestic sources of state behavior, and offers an alternative or supplemental explanatory framework to the prevailing realist and constructionist theories of international relations. Examines the cultural context for applying theories of deterrence and dissuasion, and will involve a survey of thinking and analysis on strategic culture. from both theoretical and policy perspectives, as well as an exposure to the framework and methodology of strategic cultural analysis. Several key strategic cultures will serve as case studies.

Lecture Contact Hours: 3

Typically Offered: Fall, Spring